Monthly Archives: January 2014

“Make no mistake, this is not a “resurgence” of the Syrian revolution…It is simply a cutthroat struggle for power, between jihadist groups of similar ideology, distinct only in name and the identity of their backers, albeit with slightly differing methods of imposing their doctrines on the ground…The Islamic Front, the alliance of jihadist groups now fighting ISIS, were more subtle and less murderous in dealing with citizens, even though they imposed harsh Sharia rules according to their strict interpretation, for example the public flogging of two men who missed Friday prayers in Sukkari, Aleppo by Ahrar al-Sham. It is also important to note that many factions that make up the Islamic Front have been implicated in serious war crimes such as the mass sectarian killings in rural Latakia and more recently in Adra, as well as the summary executions of captured soldiers.”

“Sheikh Mohammed said former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had reassured him that Tehran had no intention of building a nuclear weapon.
I think that they’re telling the truth when they say [the nuclear programme] is just for civilian power,” he said.

“I talked to Ahmadinejad and he said ‘if I send a rocket to Israel, how many Palestinians will I kill? And then the US and Europe will destroy my cities. I’m not crazy to go for that. It’s a weapon of the past’.””

“Last year, Israeli Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett suggested that Palestinian terrorists should be shot, not arrested and released. He also said, in a cabinet meeting, “I already killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there is absolutely no problem with that.””

“In 1953 Major Sharon committed his first war crime: the massacre of 69 civilians in the Jordanian village of Qibya. In 1982, as minister of defence, he led Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in a war of deception that failed to achieve any of its grandiose geopolitical objectives. A commission of inquiry found Sharon responsible for failing to prevent the massacre by Christian Phalangists of Palestinian refugees in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatila camps. This verdict was etched on his forehead like a mark of Cain. But who foresaw that the man who was declared unfit to be minister of defence would bounce back as prime minister?…President George W Bush famously described Sharon as “a man of peace”. For the last 40 years the Arab-Israeli conflict has been my main research interest, and I have not come across a scintilla of evidence to support this view. Sharon was a man of war through and through, an Arab-hater, and a pugnacious proponent of the doctrine of permanent conflict…His enduring legacy has been to empower and embolden some of the most racist, xenophobic, expansionist, and intransigent elements in Israel’s dysfunctional political system.”

“In a discussion with Al-Monitor, Iraqi writer and journalist Abdul Amir al-Majar said, “The culture of suicide, which wasn’t known in Iraq, is a new [jihadist] trend that has swept the Arab countries. Some young Arabs are being influenced by this distorted model and lured under the pressure of various feelings. But any political or ideological disagreement, regardless of how significant, cannot justify a man blowing himself up among innocent people just because he disagrees with them ideologically, unless such a person has been brainwashed.”http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/01/suicide-bombings-iraq-religious-processions.html#ixzz2pNoPcmeC